Calling all detectives - can you crack the case?

It’s time for some detective work! When did you last stop to look inside your food waste bin … urgh! … or pay attention to what gets put in there? Detectives must have their eyes peeled, and notice the smallest details. With your wits about you, and your notepad to hand, can you investigate which food type is most often wasted in your house? What are the worst offenders?

Are you intrigued? Where is all your food waste coming from? Sandwich crusts? Potato peelings? Brown bananas? Mouldy cheese? Something lurking at the back of the fridge that has passed its use-by date? Which foods do YOU and YOUR family waste – maybe use a secret code or a symbol to note down each type of waste? 

What do you think can be done to help solve the problem of your household food waste? After some ‘careful analysis’ can you make some family suggestions? Roast potatoes with their skins on? Make breadcrumbs from your crusts? Make a banana cake with the brown bananas? Keep a sharp detective’s eye on ‘use-by’ dates and freeze food you won’t be able to use in time. For tips and recipe ideas head to #lovefoodhatewaste and join in with Stopfoodwasteday2024 – Wednesday 24th April.

So what’s the issue with ‘food waste’? Well, prepare to be shocked - a third of food produced globally is wasted! That’s a lot of unnecessary energy, water and raw materials used to produce food that’s not even eaten! Food waste, if thrown into the ‘normal’ rubbish bin will end up in landfill sites where it’s broken down by methane-producing bacteria – and methane has about 30 times the warming potential of carbon dioxide over 100 years – that’s really bad for climate change! And guess what … 40% of UK food waste currently finds its way into landfill!! Avoiding landfill, food waste can be turned into compost, farm bio-fertiliser or even used to create electricity! Check out how one Local Council uses its food waste.

You might think food waste looks a bit disgusting, but worms love eating scraps. The humus they excrete is the main component of compost. Check out the ‘urban worm’ project. You might be intrigued by this ‘worm vs banana’ time-lapse video!

HIT THE RED BUTTON when you’ve worked out the main food waste culprits – not the individuals, but the food types - and how you can stop them in their tracks